Learning art journal techniques is honestly the fun part. Once you stop worrying about whether your pages look “good enough” and start experimenting with actual methods, everything changes. Suddenly you’ve got a toolkit of moves you can pull out whenever you sit down with your journal.
These techniques range from dead simple (anyone can do them in five minutes) to more involved (you’ll want to practice a few times). None of them require formal art training. Most of them require supplies you probably already own or can find around your house.
Background Techniques
Every good art journal page starts with the background. A solid background makes everything you add on top look more intentional, even if you’re just slapping stuff down randomly. Here are the most useful ones to learn.
Acrylic Wash
Thin your acrylic paint with water until it’s almost like watercolor. Brush it across the page in loose, uneven strokes. The paper will show through in places, which is exactly what you want. Layer two or three colors while the first is still damp and let them bleed into each other.
This takes about three minutes and transforms a blank page into something you actually want to work on. It’s the single most useful background technique there is.
Gesso Texturing
Spread white gesso across your page with a palette knife, credit card, or even a fork. Don’t smooth it out – leave ridges, scrape patterns, drag lines through it. When it dries, you’ve got a textured surface that catches paint in interesting ways.
You can also tint your gesso by mixing in a tiny bit of acrylic paint before spreading it. Tinted gesso gives you a colored, textured background in one step.
Spray Ink Backgrounds
Spray inks (Dylusions, Lindy’s, Color Burst) create dramatic backgrounds instantly. Spritz two or three colors across the page, tilt it to let the colors run and blend, and you’ve got something that looks like you spent an hour on it.
Pro tip: lay down a stencil first, spray over it, and lift. You get a crisp pattern in the negative space with soft, blended color everywhere else.
Paper Layering Base
Skip paint entirely. Glue down torn pieces of book pages, sheet music, maps, or patterned scrapbook paper until the page is mostly covered. This gives you a collage base that has instant visual interest. Everything you add on top – paint, words, images – sits on a bed of texture and pattern.
Collage Techniques
Collage is probably the most accessible art journal technique because it doesn’t require any drawing ability whatsoever. You’re arranging and layering existing materials.
Torn Paper Layering
Tearing paper (instead of cutting it) gives you soft, organic edges that blend into the page better than hard-cut shapes. Tear pieces from different sources – magazines, old books, scrapbook paper, junk mail – and overlap them on your page. The torn edges create natural transitions between elements.
Glue them down with a glue stick for a flat finish or matte medium for a slightly glossy, sealed look.
Image Transfer
Print a photo or image on regular paper using a laser printer. Apply a coat of matte medium or gel medium face-down on your journal page. Press the printed image into the wet medium, smooth out any air bubbles, and let it dry completely (overnight is best).
The next day, wet the paper backing and gently rub it away with your finger. The toner image stays behind, transferred directly onto your page. The result has this beautiful ghostly, vintage quality that’s impossible to get any other way.
Important: this only works with laser prints or photocopies. Inkjet prints will smear.
Ephemera Collage
Save interesting bits of daily life – ticket stubs, receipts, tea bag wrappers, postage stamps, seed packets, fabric scraps, pressed flowers. Incorporate them into your pages as collage elements. These pieces add authenticity and personal meaning that printed images can’t match.
If you’re into this style, you might also love junk journaling, which takes the ephemera approach even further.
Paint Techniques
Dry Brushing
Load your brush with paint, then wipe most of it off on a paper towel. Drag the nearly-dry brush across your page. You get a scratchy, textured effect where the paint only catches the high points of the paper. It’s great for adding subtle color over collage or existing layers without covering them up.
Palette Knife Painting
Squeeze paint directly onto your page and spread it around with a palette knife. You get thick, impasto-style marks that are completely different from brushwork. Mix colors directly on the page by dragging one into another. The results are bold and expressive with almost zero effort.
Splatter and Drip
Load a brush with watered-down paint and flick it at the page. Or hold the brush above the page and let paint drip off. You can’t fully control where the paint lands, which is exactly the point – it adds energy and looseness to any page.
Put down newspaper first unless you enjoy cleaning paint off your table.
Finger Painting
Don’t underestimate this. Using your fingers instead of a brush gives you more control over pressure and texture than you’d expect. Smear, dab, drag, and smudge paint directly. You’ll feel more connected to the page, and the marks have a warmth that brushes can’t replicate.
Mixed Media Techniques
Mixed media is where art journaling gets really interesting. You’re combining multiple materials and methods on a single page.
Gel Plate Printing
A gel plate (like Gelli Arts) is a reusable printing surface. Roll paint onto the plate, lay paper or stencils on it, press your journal page on top, and peel it off. Every pull creates a unique monoprint.
You can also pull prints onto separate paper and use them as collage elements later. Once you start gel plate printing, you’ll accumulate a stack of prints you can use across multiple pages.
Stencil Layering
Hold a stencil against your page and apply paint through it with a brush, sponge, or spray. Move the stencil, switch colors, repeat. Three layers of different stencils in related colors creates complex patterns that look like they took forever but actually took five minutes.
The trick is to keep the color family consistent. Three shades of blue with a stencil pattern reads as “intentional design.” Three random colors with a stencil reads as “I couldn’t decide.”
Resist Techniques
Gesso resist: Write or draw with white gesso on your page. Let it dry completely. Paint over the whole page with watercolor or diluted acrylic. The gesso resists the paint, revealing your hidden design. This works beautifully for secret messages, patterns, or doodles.
Wax resist: Draw with a white crayon or oil pastel, then paint over it. Same principle as gesso resist but with a waxier, more textured result.
Rubber cement resist: Apply rubber cement in patterns, let it dry, paint over everything, then rub off the dried cement to reveal clean paper underneath. Creates crisp edges.
Texture Paste and Modeling Paste
Spread texture paste through a stencil for raised 3D patterns. When it dries, paint over it. The raised areas catch the paint differently than the flat surface, creating dimensional effects that photograph beautifully and feel amazing to touch.
You can also mix texture paste with paint for colored dimensional elements, or embed small objects (beads, tiny buttons, thread) into it while it’s wet.
Lettering and Text Techniques
Messy Handwriting
Your handwriting is fine. Seriously. Imperfect, slightly messy handwriting has more character than any font. Write with a permanent marker or fine liner directly on your page. Vary the size – big words for important things, small words for details.
Found Text
Cut or tear words and phrases from magazines, books, or newspapers. Arrange them on your page to create new sentences, poems, or random combinations. This is called “found poetry” when you do it intentionally, and “happy accident” when you don’t.
Stamped Text
Alphabet stamps let you add text without worrying about your handwriting at all. Letter stamps come in dozens of styles and sizes. Stamp words, phrases, or single large letters as focal points.
White Pen on Dark Backgrounds
A white gel pen (like Uniball Signo) on a dark painted background creates stunning contrast. Write quotes, add details, draw patterns, or outline collage elements. The white on dark look is one of the most impactful simple techniques in art journaling.
Combining Techniques
The real magic happens when you layer these techniques together. Here’s a formula that works almost every time:
- Background layer – acrylic wash, gesso texture, or spray inks
- Middle layer – collage papers, image transfers, or stencil patterns
- Detail layer – paint accents, text, doodling, stamps
- Final touches – splatters, white pen details, washi tape edges
You don’t need all four layers on every page. But thinking in layers helps you build up complexity without feeling overwhelmed. Start with the background and add one layer at a time.
For creative prompts to practice these techniques with, check out our art journal prompts page. If you’re new to art journaling, our beginner’s guide covers supplies and your first page. And our art journal ideas hub has more inspiration and themed approaches.
The only way to get comfortable with any of these techniques is to use them. Pick one you haven’t tried, open your journal to the next blank page, and give yourself permission to make a mess. That’s how every good art journal page starts.